


Collateral Damage

by rhoen



Category: Naruto
Genre: Blood, Destruction, Disasters, Injury, M/M, Minor Character Death, aftermath of disaster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-29 16:18:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11444508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhoen/pseuds/rhoen
Summary: After Konoha is destroyed, Genma and Raidou help in the effort to rescue survivors.





	Collateral Damage

**Author's Note:**

> This definitely isn't the new work you were looking for.
> 
> I've been taking prompts on tumblr to fill the little pockets of time I have this week, and this is the result of one of those. Please proceed with caution, as it's pretty dark. Full content warnings are at the end, so read them first if you want to know what exactly it is you're about to get into. (I'd advise reading them if you're unsure.)
> 
> Not really canon. I've just decided that Konoha has been flattened by someone/something for the sake of this fic.

Everyone was exhausted; beyond exhausted. The threat to the village had been nullified despite the overwhelming odds, but the hard work continued long into the night and through into the next day. Konoha lay in ruins. Over a hundred were still missing, trapped beneath the rubble, and there wasn’t the manpower to get to them all fast enough.

It was heartbreaking work. Exhausted from the fight to defend the village and now seventeen hours into the rescue operation, Genma continued through sheer willpower alone. He was beyond sleep-deprived and his chakra was dangerously low, now only strong enough for him to reach out to try and sense where people lay beneath the wreckage, and he tugged and tore at the rubble with his bare, bleeding hands using all the energy he could muster, his muscles screaming and bones aching. A few reinforcements had arrived - those nin who had been on missions nearby or were returning anyway - but it wasn’t enough. They weren’t going to get to everyone in time. Already the death toll was high, and steadily climbing as crushed bodies were extricated from the ruins and those fighting for their lives slipped away beneath the medics’ attention. Genma couldn’t stop to think about it. He couldn’t stop. He had to keep going.

Not far to his left, and working just as tirelessly, Raidou called out to him, the urgency in his voice causing Genma’s body to try and kick out another rush of adrenaline. Picking his way across with care and stumbling with exhaustion as he tried to navigate an exposed tangle of steel, Genma reached Raidou’s side and reached out with what little chakra he had left, feeling a flicker of life somewhere beneath the tangle of concrete and heavy timbers. Raidou was already pulling at the rubble, his hands as badly damaged as Genma’s.

“Here,” he pointed, falling to his knees as he started tugging at the timber lying across where their target lay. He relented after a moment, realising that he needed to pull more debris away first, lest they fall on whoever was trapped.

He and Raidou worked silently, desperate in their exhausted attempts to reach this person; just one more person. Just one more and then they could go onto the next, Genma thought. Just one more... One more...

It could have been moments or it could have been hours before they finally lifted away a mangled piece of ironwork that had once been an ornate window security bars and discovered the body curled up beneath. Metal and glass had pierced through the woman’s simple kimono, driving into her back, and a mixture of fresh and dark, dried blood stained what had once been beautiful sky blue material. Her ruined back was to them, black hair pinned in place by the debris piercing her body.

When he reached out, Genma’s heart broke. She was dead. Her body was still warm, the last traces of life only just leaving her. She had died while they tried to reach her, just moments from rescue. Even knowing that the extent of her injuries was too severe for her to have survived, Genma still felt like they’d failed. They’d taken too long.

“Let’s get her out,” Raidou breathed, his voice choked with emotion. Genma nodded, cracked lips pressed tight together. He didn’t realise he was crying until warm tears splashed onto his dust-covered wrist, darkening the dirt and dripping onto the ruined yukata. He didn’t want to believe what he was seeing, yet couldn’t deny the stillness of the body he and Raidou were now determined to remove from its tomb.

And then Raidou’s breath hitched, and at almost exactly the same moment Genma heard a whimper. Something beneath the woman sobbed, a cry rising in its throat before it called out in a weak whisper of a voice, pleading for its mother. It had been inaudible before, but now the child’s cry was unmistakable.

“Shit,” he hissed, working almost blindly through his tears to clear enough wreckage to pull at the woman’s shoulders.

“We’ve almost got you,” Raidou promised the child, his voice trembling. “Hang in there. Just another minute, I promise.”

As they started manoeuvred the woman’s body some of the glass in her back came free and fell against metal around her, singing high, clear notes. Coupled with the feeble sobs of the child she’d died trying to protect it was one of the saddest sounds Genma could ever remember hearing. He almost didn’t have the strength to lift her upper body so Raidou could reach in for the child.

Before Raidou had even had a chance to reach in for the dark-haired little girl, Genma realised something was very, very wrong. His blood froze, and the tear-streaked grime on his face cracked as he turned and shouted with all he had left.

“Medic!” He drew breath so sharply he choked, coughed, and then tried again. “MEDIC!”

Raidou had the child, immediately cradling the pathetic little thing to his chest, and Genma found a reserve of strength he could never have imagined he possessed. With it, he pulled at the woman’s body, freeing her from the wreckage and laying her out. His hand went to her swollen belly, tears of desperation stinging his vision and washing dirt down onto ruined blue as he felt the faint flicker of life.

“Medic!” he hollered again, looking round in desperation to see if someone was coming. He felt helpless: completely at a loss as to what to do. He shouted again, pleading for someone to come.

No one came. He was dimly aware of Raidou somewhere nearby, taking care of the child, but other than that he was completely alone with the black-haired woman. He spent the last of his chakra reserves feeling the life of the her unborn baby fading, until there was nothing left.

 

Everything after that became a blur. At some point he was relieved, a two-man team just returned from a mission to Suna granting him a reprieve and a chance to rest for four hours before he would have to go back out again. Genma barely had enough energy to drag himself over to where Raidou sat, waiting with the rescued girl in the non-urgent medical area. He couldn’t even return the reassuring squeeze Raidou gave his limp hand, instead all but collapsing next to his partner. Raidou’s hand brushing his filthy, matted hair away from his cheek was the last thing Genma remembered before sleep claimed him.

He slept for more than four hours. No one woke him. No one needed to. Two hours after he passed out next to Raidou, the main force had arrived. Those who had been drawn away from the village returned, and that was enough to finish the rescue and recovery of those still trapped. Genma woke to find that it was dusk. Someone had draped a blanket over him, and another was beneath his head. The first thing he saw in the dying light was Raidou, his weary gaze fixed on Genma as he held the motherless little girl in his arms.

“Did you sleep?” was the first concern he managed to voice, the words having to be forced from his painful, dry throat and past cracked lips.

Raidou nodded. “A little. I’m okay, don’t worry.”

“How long was I out?”

“Seven hours, give or take a few minutes.”

Sitting up in a panic, Genma realised why he hadn’t been woken sooner. Relief washed through him, doubling the weight of his aching limbs.

“Did they get everyone?”

“I think so,” Raidou nodded. “You can rest.”

“And you? Could someone not take her?” Genma at last looked at the little girl. She was five or so, slight, and someone has washed her skin free of dust and her mother’s blood. Her clothes were still filthy, if what little Genma could see over the blanket she was wrapped in was anything to go by, and although her hair had been combed free of tangles, it was still in desperate need of a wash.

“She won’t let go.”

All Genma could do was nod, shifting and pushing the blanket away. He wanted to go home, but there was no home to go to.

“I’ll try and find us some water,” he announced, struggling to his feet. He also wanted to find out how the rescue operation was going, but felt so drained he’d settle for the very basics. “Get some more rest, Rai. It’s my turn to watch over you.”

Raidou gave a wan smile, starting to shift as Genma walked away. By the time he came back some twenty minutes later, having found three rations of rice as well as a canteen of water, Raidou was settled beneath the blanket, the girl tucked up against him. Both were fast asleep. A small part of Genma was glad that both he and Raidou had survived unscathed, but the rest of him was still too filled with sadness for it to make any difference to how he felt.

So he sat, and he kept watch over his partner and the little girl as the daylight gave up its struggle against the night, and the living recovered and counted the dead.

 

The next few days passed slowly, lengthened by the hard work to clear the way for rebuilding, and the toll of burying the dead. Genma and Raidou attended the funeral held for the little girl’s mother, Raidou holding her hand the whole time. She’d been taken under the care of the disaster relief team, and still hadn’t spoken a word, but she could now bear to be parted from Raidou, who had given her his hitai-ate to make it easier on her.

His hands still tender and finger aching from a fracture he hadn’t even realised he’d sustained during the attack, or perhaps the frantic search for survivors immediately afterwards, Genma struggled with his chopsticks as they sat on top of the Hokage monument, looking down at the destroyed village. Genma’s hands hadn’t been suited to delicate work lately, and it would be a while before the skin and sores healed enough to stop tugging and aching with every movement. Raidou wasn’t much better off, and they both politely ignored each other’s clumsiness.They’d only had one change of clothes brought to them, and had wordlessly helped each other with the zippers and buttons, somehow them managing to undress, bathe in the river, and redress between them. Fresh scabs had caught in Raidou’s hair as Genma helped him shampoo, Raidou struggling just as much. The kiss they shared was soft and weary, both understanding all that couldn’t be expressed in the wake of the disaster. There would be time afterwards, they knew; time to heal properly.

“I wonder where our new home will be,” Raidou said. Genma hummed, thinking about what he’d lost. Next to nothing had survived.

“As long as it’s with you, I don’t think I really care,” he said, struggling to readjust his chopsticks. The rice flopped back into the bento box on his next attempt, and he decided to take a break. “Were you thinking about her?”

“Yeah,” Raidou nodded, sighing over his own food.

“I know I didn’t get to say it before, but I’m really proud of you for the way you took care of her, Rai. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I did,” Raidou said modestly. Genma shook his head, thinking of the way Raidou had cradled the little girl for the first day, sitting with her and trying to encourage her to eat, waiting patiently in line to receive support for her. He comforted her when she’d cried, spoken soothingly to her at her mother’s funeral, and hadn’t flinched when her hands had reached out to explore his scarred face. They both knew he hadn’t been obliged to do any of those things.

“You know you didn’t, don’t give me that,” Genma chastised lightly. “And I’m trying to give you a compliment here, and tell you how wonderful you are. Keep quiet and let me.”

“Yes, sir,” Raidou murmured, the smallest of smiles tugging at his lips for the first time in days.

It was Genma’s turn to sigh heavily, staring out over the village. He knew that it was never possible to save everyone, but at the same time still felt like he had failed the young mother and her unborn child. He couldn’t help feeling that there was something more he could have, or should have, done to save her. He knew that, even if there was, there was nothing could be done about it now, but as he’d watched Raidou taking care of the orphaned girl, he realised that there was something he still might be able to do.

“Have they spoken about what will happen to her?” he eventually asked.

“She’ll stay with the relief team until they can find somewhere to place her. An orphanage or something, maybe foster parents if she’s lucky.”

Raidou answered matter-of-factly, not yet realising what Genma planned to suggest.

“Foster parents, huh? I wonder if shinobi are suitable, or same-sex, unmarried couples.”

“I—” Raidou started, attention on his rice at first, and not the possibility behind Genma’s words. When it registered, he looked up sharply, staring at Genma. “You mean it?”

“I think we could think about it,” Genma said firmly, not entirely ready to agree to such a commitment, but willing to consider it.

Raidou gave a solemn nod, understanding. “Yeah, we can think about it.”

They’d both given up on their rice. Setting his food aside, Genma reached out for Raidou’s hand, lacing their fingers together with difficulty and feeling the rough catch and slide of their healing injuries.

“So, about that ‘unmarried’ part…”

Despite his attempt to sound casual, Genma could hear the nervousness in Raidou’s voice. His heart did something he didn’t think it was capable of in that moment, and skipped a beat, fluttering wildly within his chest. He hardly dared speak for fear of Raidou’s answer.

“Are you asking me to marry you?”

“I guess I am,” Raidou said, turning towards him. “If you would have me?”

Despite having no idea how the future would unfold, or what might happen as they and the village started to heal, there was one thing Genma knew and had always been certain of. There was no question as to the answer he would give, and he leaned in, giving Raidou a heartfelt kiss before he pulled back and gave his answer, a smile gracing his lips and hope lending him strength he hadn’t realised he’d been lacking to face everything that was about to come.

“Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Destroyed Konoha, injuries, emotional trauma, death of a villager (she dies before they can dig her out), death of her unborn baby, the other child lives, happy(ish) ending.


End file.
